When Sparks Fly Read Free Page A

Bancroft.”
    â€œDon’t be silly.” Futilely she struggled against his iron hold. “I’m not about to—Wait, how did you know my name?”
    â€œYour coachman told me you’re Joseph Bancroft’s daughter.” Without ceremony, he threw open the carriage door and hoisted her inside. “Now stay put, blast you. I’ve got enough to worry about without risking the wrath of your rich father after you break your damned-­fool neck rescuing your fancy gowns.”
    â€œBut that is not what I wished to—”
    He slammed the door and walked off.
    Taken entirely aback, she sat blinking where he’d dumped her on the coach floor. Well! Wasn’t he a churlish lout? If he hadn’t rescued Aunt Alys, she would give him a piece of her mind!
    And how was it that even strangers knew she had money?
    With an apologetic smile, Jarvis came up to say through the window, “I’m sure his lordship will be glad to send someone for the trunks later, miss.”
    â€œHis lordship?” Could that dirty, ill-­bred fellow possibly be a gentleman?
    Jarvis bent nearer the glass. “The Baron Thorncliff, miss. But don’t you worry none about the Black Baron—that nonsense folks say about ’im is just talk.”
    The Black Baron? Ah, because of his peculiar habit of walking around caked in soot. She shuddered to think what his house might look like. And she was vastly curious to know what people were saying about him.
    Before she could ask, Jarvis hastened off and Aunt Alys moaned, shifting Ellie’s attention to her. Ellie checked her pulse. It seemed strong, and she was breathing steadily.
    â€œEllie?” her aunt whispered.
    Relief flooded her. “Yes, I’m right here.”
    Aunt Alys tried to sit up, then sank back with a groan. “My . . . head hurts.”
    â€œI know, Aunt.” She stroked her aunt’s light brown hair back from her pale forehead. “You’ve been in an accident.”
    Aunt Alys’s blue eyes shot open, though they looked unfocused. “The children—”
    â€œThey’re here and unharmed. We’re taking you to a doctor.” She didn’t want to tax her aunt too sorely with explanations just now. “You should rest.”
    With a nod, her aunt closed her eyes.
    â€œIs Mama going to be all right?” Meg asked from her perch on Percy’s lap.
    â€œCertainly,” Ellie said with as much conviction as she could muster.
    Wishing she could do more, Ellie settled her aunt more comfortably on the seat, careful not to jar her broken leg where it lay on the cushion that Lord Thorncliff had used to prop it up. After tucking the blanket around her, Ellie didn’t know what else to do except pray that Lord Thorncliff really could fetch a doctor to his home quickly. And that they could trust him.
    While Jarvis and their rescuer struggled to turn the coach, she fished out her spectacles so she could peer at him out the window. The stranger’s mount did appear to be rather fine, and he did carry himself with a semblance of breeding. If not for his sooty exterior, she might believe he was a lord.
    A teacher had once told them that men were either beasts, gentlemen, or beasts masquerading as gentlemen. Might there be a fourth category—gentlemen masquerading as beasts? After all, Lord Thorncliff had rescued them, albeit grudgingly. Surely that meant he was a gentleman somewhere deep inside.
    Very deep inside, judging from his surly temper. Still, perhaps he behaved like that because people around him put up with it, too cowed to do otherwise.
    Well, she couldn’t help that her family had inconvenienced him, but neither could she let him keep ordering them about without paying any mind to her opinions. She had to think of the children and Aunt Alys. Someone had to stand up to him, and that someone would have to be her.
    She just had to keep calm, and make it clear he